There is increasing popularization of MBMSs along with the development of software and hardware technologies of communications. In order to save frequency resources and the utilization ratio of spectrums, the technology of Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) has been proposed in the industry, where there is synchronous transmission over a plurality of cells at the same frequency at the same time. One of common channels in the MBSFN technology is a Multicast Control Channel (MCCH).
The MCCH is a point to multipoint downlink channel over which a network transmits MBMS related control information in the MBSFN area to a User Equipment (UE), and one MCCH can correspond to one or more Multicast Traffic Channels (MTCHs), that is, control information of a plurality of MTCHs can be carried over one MCCH.
In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, an MBMS Counting request is carried over an MCCH. At present only a user equipment which is receiving an MBMS related to an MCCH will read the content over the MCCH in each modification period, that is, when a MBMS Counting request is carried over an MCCH in a specific modification period, only a UE which is receiving an MBMS of the MBSFN area can obtain the request and further make a report and perform other operations. A large number of UEs which are not receiving the MBMS of the area, even in a connected state, cannot know Counting request of the service over the MCCH and thus cannot make any response. Thus, particularly for the service of which transmission has not been initiated in the MBSFN area, the numerous UEs which have not received the MBMS of the area are very likely to be a group of potential recipients of the service to which the counting request refers, so if these UEs cannot receive the request and further make a response in a counting response procedure, then there may be an influence upon determination at the network side as to whether to initiate the service, and further the service which would otherwise be initiated may possibly not be initiated, thus the service is impeded from being deployed.